Explorers Room with Flash Strap:
Playlist
from October 12, 2017

This is where all of culture and all of time are collapsed into one seductive portal and viewed through the panoramic lens of the exotic. Come and embark on an armchair-travel virtual-voyage to the heart of timeless darkness and beyond; embrace the numinous monolith of the exotic immensity. Let us find that place where hybridization meets its destiny as pure fantasy. Let us become observers observing those others who are ourselves. You wear your mask and I'll wear mine.

Thu. 10/12/17 7:10pm
Flash Strap:
there's a really good NTS mix on this guy, Angel Rada, that I actually helped contribute a few tracks to... worth a listen to be sure. I'll drop a link for your later enjoyment: soundcloud.com...

Thu. 10/12/17 7:11pm
Scraps:
better than this summer, i will only say that

Thu. 10/12/17 7:35pm
Flash Strap:
It's really really good, LD! I just started listening to it and it's really hard to put down, so to speak. sorta makes me think of moondog, which makes sense; I know Garland was close with Harry Partch, and studied under Harold Budd

Thu. 10/12/17 7:55pm
Flash Strap:
Need to check all those out, Scraps. Don't think I know any of them, except a few things from We All Together

Thu. 10/12/17 7:58pm
Flash Strap:
this record is such an all-time great

Thu. 10/12/17 8:01pm
Scraps:
About five years ago, I seriously investigated South American music, because I noticed, through Rate Your Music's maps, my collection was seriously impoverished down there, except Brazil.

Thu. 10/12/17 8:06pm
Flash Strap:
this has to be one of the greatest vocal performances on record imo

Thu. 10/12/17 8:08pm
doca:
Hey, Mr. Flash Strap! I was lurking here, but what a great song this is (and what a great show today). Haiti's hymn is really beautiful. I had the chance to teach a course on Atlantic History at the local university and one of the topics was the Haitian Revolution. What a beautiful (though bloody) history of that war for liberation, and the hymn and this song convey all that was at stake throughout it. It's such a shame the world has turned its back on Haiti for so long.

Excuse for the length of my comment!

Thu. 10/12/17 8:12pm
Flash Strap:
Hi Doca! always great to see you! I agree, I've been utterly fascinated with Haiti's all-too-overlooked history ever since reading The Black Jacobins. Haiti's is one of the most important national histories, and one of the most breathtaking histories of liberation. makes it all the more unforgivable each time we (by which I mean the US gov, not that it's an exclusive club) fuck them over

Thu. 10/12/17 8:40pm
coelacanth∅:
when i was there 50% of the storefronts were vacant. it was very enjoyable but i couldn't find work - except the midnight shift at the canning factory, sliding can lids into paper sleeves.

Thu. 10/12/17 8:41pm
melinda:
I want to visit N. Carolina. I was there in the 80s, and I remember it smelling really good, like pine and tobacco but not at the same time.

Thu. 10/12/17 8:43pm
Flash Strap:
I have to say, it does smell good here. and damn if it isn't still really beautiful, from the mountains to the coast. a million islands and a zillion waterfalls

Thu. 10/12/17 8:45pm
melinda:
Good to hear it smells nice, I wondered if maybe all the development had changed things.

Thu. 10/12/17 8:47pm
Asheville Jon:
smells like breweries downtown and nearby. haven't smelled tobacco drying around here in a long time. also smells a lot like vehicle exhaust a lot of the time too.

Thu. 10/12/17 8:47pm
coelacanth∅:
when i was leaving asheville (also in the 80s) i drove away feeling like i was leaving home, even though i'd calculated that i'd only spent 1/50th of my life there. i had decided to go to school for massage therapy, and i was told that it was illegal to massage someone of the opposite sex for money in nc.

Thu. 10/12/17 8:49pm
still b/p:
The gentrihipstertouristification, for better and worse -- we don't know nuthin' 'bout that round here, DO WE Melinda?

Thu. 10/12/17 8:49pm
melinda:
I figured the tobacco aroma was probably a thing of the past. It was pretty exciting as a teenager though, it was so different from my norms and interesting being in the heart of a particular industry/crop.

Thu. 10/12/17 8:52pm
melinda:
haha! It really seems like Portland and Asheville are on parallel gentrification courses. Cheaper than the big cities and attracting their people and $$.

Thu. 10/12/17 8:55pm
Asheville Jon:
ashevegas is not cheap. it's tough to get by here, and getting tougher all the time.

Thu. 10/12/17 8:58pm
melinda:
What I meant was cheap compared to the outrageously expensive cities, thus a draw for people from those places. Especially telecommuters who make higher salaries than the average person in a town like Asheville or Portland ME.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:00pm
Flash Strap:
still smells like pine in Bahama, we have a one room post office, and a coterie of exotic birds and beasts. just 20 minutes away from the dread forces of "it's gonna be the next tech mecca"-fication of Durham

Thu. 10/12/17 9:01pm
still b/p:
Friends of mine are embittered about rising rents, costs, eyesores, crowds and about enterprises and attitudes that are a bit too precious and trendy. These people are in the arts circles that contribute to some of the local attractiveness, however...in the strange dance and diagram of a locale's desirability dynamic.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:03pm
melinda:
Ugh, beware the tech meccas. Durham seems like a cool place in many ways but it does seem like the tech factor really enables gentrification.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:15pm
Flash Strap:
@melinda: yeah the dance of gentrification is one of mandatory conscription, and each of us must play our part as we try to survive. crushed by the guilt of our obvious culpability, utterly unable to free ourselves from it; it sucks to be an artist in this system, where your very presence is exploited for increased rent and subsequent minority/lower-income displacement, a process that will inevitably displace you as well once the foundation is laid for tech or real estate developers to move in

Thu. 10/12/17 9:16pm
geezerette:
Any stories about Bandon Oregon? We used to dream of moving there, years ago, but I'm sure it's been gentrified for a long time.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:16pm
Flash Strap:
Thanks, Jon! EP-4 is one of the coolest Japanese groups, imo

Thu. 10/12/17 9:18pm
still b/p:
Gonna see the locally produced Damnationland movies here in town at State Theater tomorrow night. Scaaary flicks! I'll know many faces in them, the attending crowd is fun, and I might be in one for about a second if I wasn't cutting-room-floored.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:19pm
Flash Strap:
that there is a wild left turn! I love this track for that

Thu. 10/12/17 9:19pm
Asheville Jon:
is there a program schedule somewhere for the GTDR stream?

Thu. 10/12/17 9:19pm
geezerette:
Evan@9:15: No kidding! I'll spare you a rant but I could go on.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:19pm
melinda:
Geeze maybe you know about this but a gentrification story that really stands out is the conflict in Boyle Heights, in LA, where locals are actively trying to drive out art galleries, seeing them as the first and dangerous phase of $$ takeover.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:22pm
geezerette:
Melinda, I was tempted to bring it up! It's a great illustration of the complexity!

Thu. 10/12/17 9:22pm
Flash Strap:
Shit! i meant to mention this during the last break and I will in the next but I just want to say that you know by the way it's the fundraiser right now, help a drummer out if you can. I have some thank yous to do on the next break, maybe you could be one of them

Thu. 10/12/17 9:23pm
Asheville Jon:
i get paid this weekend and plan to donate (again) to FMU next week

Thu. 10/12/17 9:24pm
Flash Strap:
I need to read about that, Melinda! that's intense, highlights a feeling I've had for a long time. art is not just inherently good, esp. under capitalism's logic

Thu. 10/12/17 9:26pm
Flash Strap:
thanks for the link and thanks for you past and future donations, Jon

Thu. 10/12/17 9:26pm
melinda:
Re: Boyle Heights they are totally correct in seeing art galleries as a sort of threat, and yet it seems fucked up to forbid them from setting up or trying to drive them away. Also weird that one of the outfits under fire was, I believe, a print studio that had been helping local artists for years before the controversy.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:28pm
Flash Strap:
almost as if the problem is the superstructure that sets these things into conflict

Thu. 10/12/17 9:28pm
Asheville Jon:
heh, sure. heck, i have an FMU sticker on my car and am wearing an FMU shirt right now, i better help keep it on the "air"

Thu. 10/12/17 9:30pm
melinda:
What it means is that in order to avoid displacement of lower-income people, we have to adhere to cultural and economic segregation, and stay in our respective corners. Which also doesn't seem right, but yeah, it's the superstructure that leaves us with these lame choices.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:32pm
Flash Strap:
this is such a unique sounding record. never really got into the incredible string band, but i can't put this one down

@melinda: incredibly awful. time to abolish the dollar

Thu. 10/12/17 9:32pm
Asheville Jon:
goodnight y'alls. really glad i found this show, will be checking the archives for more, and tuning in in the future.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:39pm
Flash Strap:
very few artists make me wish I could understand French as much as Ribeiro does, it's like her and Brel at the top of the list of people I want to understand in their native French

Thu. 10/12/17 9:40pm
Flash Strap:
not that there's any real lyrics in this, I was just thinking about all her cool music that I don't understand

Thu. 10/12/17 9:40pm
northguineahills:
ISB is a huge fave of mine, but COB stuff is hard to find, I've only found some on some comps. Digging this Catherin Ribeiro +2Bis.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:45pm
northguineahills:
I don't hear lyrics, usually. I found a christian band cd I got when I was 16 and have listened to many times. It sounded like early REM (band was decent), but damn, I finally heard the lyrics, and they were so Xtian I had to toss it. I actually have decent Xtian bands like Starflyer 59 (who sound like mbv meets Jesus and the Mary Chain), but no weird lyrics.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:48pm
northguineahills:
Clive is Scottish. His music canons vary from all cultures.

Thu. 10/12/17 9:50pm
melinda:
ngh I often don't hear lyrics either. It can be embarrassing.